This morning I opened the door, hoping to find “Chile Dog”, but he was gone. After a breakfast of crepes with fresh mangos, we were at the horse stables of Piti Pont by 10am. There were no horses or people around, only a friendly German shepherd. Then in the distance we could hear a herd of horses. As they came closer they were corralled into their pen. The horses were beautiful, but very spirited. The owner’s name was Piti and his Spanish had a very thick Polynesian accent and he spoke no English. As Piti tried to lasso a horse for us to ride, he asked Matt if he wanted a fast horse. Matt said no. I told Pete, “El prefiere un cabello tranquillo,” so Matt got a horse named Torre who was 10 years old and the most mellow of the bunch. Pete chose an 8 year old horse for me named Eva who had some spunk, but was very sweet. Once all of us were mounted up, we made our way to the highest point on the island that can only be reached by horseback or an extremely long day hike.
It had been about 5 years since I rode a horse, but everything came right back and I was totally comfortable riding Eva while we galloped along. She took direction really well. Matt and Torre were another story. Matt instantly earned the nickname “ciudad chico” as he bounced along in the saddle trying to maintain some control over Torre. Sometimes Torre would just stop and no matter what Matt did or said, Torre would not move. Piti would have get them moving. It was an incredibly funny site watching Matt stuck on a horse in the middle of Rapa Nui.
We wandered up and over the mountains and through pastures with herds of wild horses. Rapa Nui has as many horses as people. Piti and I spent a lot of time talking and sharing stories. Every once in awhile, he would say the simplest word and I would not understand due to his accent, but then I would finally figure it out and we continued chatting. Matt enjoyed himself when the horses were quietly walking, but when we had to kick it up a notch and ride at a gallop, he was not happy. He was hanging on so tightly to the saddle, that he got a blister on his thumb. Piti tried to tell him to relax and to go with the movement of the horse, but he just bounced along in the saddle. His effort really meant a lot to me though. Matt knew that I really wanted to see the island on horseback. When we got to the highest point on the island, the 3 of us dismounted. Matt took all the photos while I sat with Piti and we shared stories about our families and what life was like for him on Rapa Nui as we looked out over the ocean. The one place in the world that he wanted to visit someday was Switzerland.
The ride back to Piti’s ranch was along an easy trail. We opted for the trail instead of off-roading again with the horses in order to give Matt’s cuelo a rest. Before reaching the ranch, we rode up to a set of Maoi that were really impressive. They were just standing there in the middle of nowhere looking out towards the sea. This set of 7 Moai are the only ones which look out to the sea. All the other Moai look inwards towards the island in order to protect the people. The 7 Moai that look out towards the sea face the Maldese Islands, and the oral history of the Rapa Nui people says that this is where the 7 brothers who founded the island came from. When it was time to leave the site, Piti and I started riding off, but Matt and Torre were not moving. We both yelled, “Ciao Matt y Torre!” Torre just snacked on the grass while Matt kept saying his horse was broken.
Once back at the ranch, I hugged Eva goodbye and we went to Piti’s orchard and picked a bag of mangos. They were sweet like candy and were not stringy inside like the mangos I’ve had back home. We said our goodbyes to Piti and walked back into town. The walk was nice after 4 hours of riding. Along the walk, we stopped at the Rapa Nui Museo and had a crash course in the archeological history of the island.
At sunset, we walked down to a Maoi site, and each went off in different directions for the perfect sunset photo. I got side-tracked when I walked down to the water and watched a man fishing from the rocks. I got a few photos of him silhouetted against the sunset. He finished fishing and walked over to me. I thought he was going to be upset that I photographed him, but instead, he just wanted to visit. He showed me the type of line and hooks he uses with Chicken as bait for the large Tuna they catch from the rocky shores. I told him that in America, tuna is called Chicken of the Sea. He thought that was really funny. If I understood him correctly, we are meeting tomorrow at the same time and he is going to let me fish. They don’t use a pole to fish. Instead, the line is wrapped around a piece of metal piping…that’s it. So you spool out some line, throw it like a net and then quickly wrap it around the spool by hand if you catch something. The fisherman’s name was Gahgi and he insisted on walking me back to where Matt was sitting with his tripod and camera.
After sunset, we walked into town for some dinner. During dinner we met a lovely couple from New Zealand. Jenny and Robert had been on holiday for 2 months and were making their way back to New Zealand. They had some great travel stories. On the walk home, I kept an eye out for “Chile Dog” but we never saw him.
Back at the bungalow, it was easy to say, “Today was an excellent day!”
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